To exorcise his inner demons, Chris Benoit kept a diary about the rigors of life as a professional wrestler. It described a lonely, grueling profession of repeated head blows and an unending work schedule on the road. Most of all, it grieved the death of his best friend.

For more than a decade, World Wrestling Entertainment and other organizations seemingly looked the other way as their professional wrestlers died young. So observers were stunned last week by the WWE's suspension of 11 grapplers for violations of a policy that tests for steroids and other drugs.